Be the Change - IITM Saarang Jazz Show

I have always craved to witness Saarang(the erstwhile Mardi Gras) atleast once, especially the Rock Show that happens there. This time I missed the rock show narrowly though my roomies went. It featured Orange Street and the popular Moksha this time. Heard from my roomies that they played few originals and some very good numbers including Iron Maiden's Two minutes to midnight and Fear of the dark. Psst, I missed it.

That was not all. But we were late again for the Light Music Show by Kay Kay. All we were left with was the Jazz show. But I was cheered up when I knew that R.Prasanna is playing. He has played guitar for both A.R.Rahman and Illayaraaja. He is very well known for his carnatic performances with his electric guitars. I had no prejudices and was open to hear and see what Jazz is all about. If you are wondering what jazz is an example would be the song 'Vaan Nila' from Kaadhal Virus. The bands would mostly have a saxophonist, guitarist, keyboard player and very good drummer.

I reached the IIT campus at 7:10 PM. The show time was announced as 7:30 PM. Just rushed to the OAT(Open Air Theatre) where my team-mate was waiting for me with the tickets. We just rushed in and luckily got a decent place to sit. I mean the view was perfect; we were just opposite the stage. Life is not without irony - the show started 30 minutes late.

Jeff Coffin, the guy who handled the sax, flutes and clarinets was the first to get on the stage. He was generating all kinds of funny sounds(I just came to know that the saxophone farts!) amidst the regular sounds. Then came in Prasanna(who himself is an IITM alumni) on guitars, Kai Eckhardt on the bass and Derico Watson on the drums.

The show started off with Ragabop, Ta Ka Ta Ki Ta blues and Pangaea Rising - all from his latest CD 'Be the change'. The we had Sushila, his wife and an IITM alumni on stage to render her voice to the song 'Sachidhanandha'. The crowd wasn't enjoying her voice and there was a lot of noise towards the end of that song. Wondering why Prasanna said a 'Thank you' for that too.

There was a 15 minute break in between and then Derico took over the stage after the break. He was amazing. He just has an excellent control over time and he is powerful. In Prasanna's words 'Mark his name in your diaries, he is going to rock the world with his drums'. I haven't seen a drummer performing like him 'LIVE' before. I truly enjoyed this guy's game with the drums. They went on with 'Uncensored', 'Sathyam' and so on. We started by 10:45 PM before the show ended. I bought Prasanna's latest album 'Be the change' at the venue shelling out 500 rupees.